Just curious, I have done a search here and come up with nothing, does anyone use the Australian stingless native bee? they are very good pollinators but no good for honey production, they only forage up to aprox 150 yd radious from the hive so it easier to control cross pollination, their honey is very sweet however I believe there is a 50% chance of loosing the hive if you rob them and besides you would only get about 2lb of honey, the bees are about the size of a house fly and very user friendly.:)

I am probably not telling you something that you don't already know but I haven't seen them mentioned here. :scratch:

01-29-2013, 12:32 PM

Leandrogcard

Re: Australian Stingless Native Bee for pollinating

There are also many species of south american stingless bees, some of them able to produce considerable amounts of honey besides performing pollination work. Some of the species are almost as big as the European bee (Apis mellifera) and their honey productivity per bee are even higher. Others form big swarms and can produce over 20 lbs of their special honey a year per colony. Some are so docile and adaptable that can be kept on balconies of apartments, and others are so small that can be kept inside home as pets, collecting pollen and nectar of flowers in vases.

There are plenty of species to choose, for different uses and applications. I live in the city, but I'm moving to a new apartment with a big balcony and will install hives of two different species just for fun.